Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States,
that by the occasion of a Republican administration, their property
and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has
never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the
most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published
speeches of him who now addresses you.
I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declared that "I
have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery, in the States where it exists."
I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination
to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with the full
knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had
never recanted them. I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing
so, I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive
evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace,
and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now
incoming administration.
I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with
no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical
rules; and, while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of
Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much
safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to
and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate
any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be
unconstitutional.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a president
under our national constitution. During that period, fifteen different
and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the
executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through
many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with this scope
for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief
constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar
difficulties.
I hold, that in the contemplation of universal law and the
Constitution, the union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is
implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national
governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a
provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and
the Union will endure forever.
To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? Before
entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national
fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it
not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a
step while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real
existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater
than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of
so fearful a mistake?
All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in
the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind
is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing
this.
All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly
assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and
prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise
concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a
provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in
practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any
document of reasonable length contain, express provision for all
possible questions.
Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by National or by State
authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress
protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not
expressly say.
From questions of this class spring all our constitutional
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the
government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the
government but acquiescence on the one side or the other.
If the minority will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a
precedent which, in turn, will ruin and divide them; for a minority of
their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be
controlled by such a minority. For instance, why should not any
portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede
again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede
from it?
All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the
exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interest
among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only,
and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession
is the essence of anarchy.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate; we cannot move our respective
sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A
husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and
beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country
cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse,
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them.
Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or
more satisfactory after separation than before? Suppose you go to war,
you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and
no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to
terms of intercourse are again upon you.
Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of
the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our
present differences is either party without faith of being in the
right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations with His eternal truth and
justice be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that
truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this
great tribunal of the American people.
By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have
wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and
have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their
own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their
virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness
or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space
of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon the whole
subject--nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an
object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would
never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking
time, but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are
now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on
the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the
new administration will have no immediate power if it wanted to change
either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the
right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for
precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are
still competent to adjust in the best way all our present
difficulties.
In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You
can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have
no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall
have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.
I am about to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battle field and patriot grave, to every loving heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our
nature.